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Turning Microchips Into Lasers

Posted by michael on from the I-will-not-blind-people-with-my-pentium-7 dept.

An AC sends news of this New York times article on trying to use photons instead of electrons to make much faster chips. "Not available in stores near you".

1 of 12 comments (clear)

  1. Optical-to-optical amplifiers would be useful now. by re-geeked · · Score: 3

    Even if this research doesn't create silicon lasers, the use of it to amplify fiber-optic signals would be of great benefit in today's hot new networking tech: all-optical routers.

    Today, if you want to amplify a light signal (they attenuate, too, at least when traveling through fiber) you need to convert the signal to electrical, then retransmit as optical. This is a big speed hit.

    The article does mention this briefly, but this practical short-term application gets lost in the breathless predictions of a glowing future.

    Does anyone have any idea whether the response of the silicon would be fast enough to improve on the current situation?

    --
    "You can't get something for nothing." - my grandfather, on the stock market and Reaganomics.